Continued growth in employment among immigrants

The percentage of immigrants aged 16 to 74 who are employees (employee rate) increased 2.8 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 1997 to the fourth quarter of 1998, and ended up at 50.9 per cent. The corresponding percentage for the population at large was 60.8 per cent with an increase of 1.2 percentage points relative to the same quarter in the previous year. Immigrants from Eastern Europe and South and Central America had the greatest increase in employee rate.

The employee rate increased about equally for male and female immigrants. Among immigrants, however, the employee rate for women was 10.2 percentage points lower than the employee rate for men in the fourth quarter of 1998. By comparison, the employee rate for women in the population at large was 5.1 percentage points lower than employee rate for men. Self-employed persons are currently not included in the statistics that cover first generation immigrants (immigrants with two foreign-born parents).

Greatest increase for Eastern Europeans

The employee rate has risen for all immigrant groups. Immigrants from Eastern Europe had the greatest increase in employee rate with a 6.3 percentage point rise since the fourth quarter of 1997, but the employee rate was initially low for this group. Both the level of employment and the change in employee rate for Eastern Europeans were significantly affected by the relatively large group of refugees who came from the former Yugoslavia around 1994. In addition, immigrants from South and Central America had a 5.2 percentage point increase in the employee rate, which then came to 55.0 per cent. Among the various groups of immigrants, those from the Nordic countries had the highest employee rate, followed by immigrants from the rest of Western Europe. Immigrants from Africa and from North America and Oceania had the lowest employee rates with 41.8 and 44.3 per cent respectively. The number of registered unemployed reveals, however, that the immigrants from North America and Oceania have a low unemployment in contrast to the immigrants from Africa.

New Statistics
Employee statistics for immigrants, fourth quarter 1998.
The statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics, on the Internet and in Official Statistics of Norway (NOS) Labour Market Statistics. Detailed figures are given in basic tables for immigrant and foreign citizens. Unemployment and job creation programme statistics for immigrants are also published four times per year. For more information, contact: Jorn.Ivar.Hamre@ssb.no, tel.: +47 21 09 49 29, or Bjorn.Mathisen@ssb.no, tel. +47 21 09 48 89.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 21, 1999